Boys basketball: South wastes little time

The South High School boys basketball team likes to score early and often.

That was the Colts’ recipe for success Tuesday night in the team’s first homestand of the season. South beat Vista Ridge, 79-41.

South, 3-2, scored 21 points in the first quarter and never looked back.

“We try to push the pace right away and we don’t let up,” South senior Brian Pratt said.

“Our last two games, we won by a combined 92 points. We don’t let up. We keep going and that’s the way we want to play for the rest of the season.”

Pratt, who finished with 18 points, said his team also takes pride in its defense.

“Defense creates offense, so we are all over other teams as long as we can be,” Pratt said.

The Colts created turnovers throughout the game and scored quick buckets in transitions.

Trey Parker came out firing in the third quarter, scoring 11 points, including a 3-pointer.

“We wanted to make a statement that we are a team to contend with in Pueblo. We wanted to assert our dominance the whole night,” Parker said.

Parker finished with 17 points.

“The first half, I didn’t feel like I performed as well as I could of so in the second half I felt I should be more aggressive and take the ball to the hole as much as possible and create for my team.”

The only highlight from Vista Ridge came when junior Andrew Reed climbed through the air after a fast break and finished with a monster dunk early in the third quarter.

South coach DJ Johnson said his team is trying to find its way through the season and Tuesday’s win was a good start.

“We tried to be aggressive with them. They are an athletic team so we thought if we could force them into mistakes early and force them to take shots, we could get some fast-break opportunities,” he said.

“Basketball is an easy game when you can get out in transitions and score. It helped to get back home and play in front of the home crowd for the first time this year.”